In the bubbling economy and extremely unstable prices of essentials
Jackfruit possibly continued to remain as the cheapest available fruit
in Bangladesh. Many dislike this fruit because of its offensive odor and
unique taste. But this is the only fruit, which always attracts the
jackals, as this fruit remains at the lowest height of the trees, where
this jackals have easy access. Now this fruit has become the headline
story in most of the newspapers in the country, when the case of
millions of Taka bribery scandal was attempted to be buried under the
funny story of the officer carrying jackfruit from Chittagong [eastern
divisional headquarter in Bangladesh] to Dhaka. The driver of the
general manager of Bangladesh Railway told Anti Corruption Commission
that his boss carried a huge jute sack filled with jackfruit from
Chittagong to Dhaka, though it [Chittagong] is not the place, where
jackfruit is either available or produced in plenty. The fairytale of
railway's official carrying a huge jute sack filled with jackfruit was
created with the ulterior motive of hiding the fact of the corrupt
officer carrying the jute sack filled with bundles of local currency
destined to be delivered at the residence of the then railway minister
Suranjit Sen Gupta. The Taka 7 million bribery scandal was busted in an
incident on April 9, 2012, when the driver of minister's assistant
personal secretary revolted and brought the vehicle inside the
headquarters of Border Guards Bangladesh, where the members of the
paramilitary forces unearthed the rocking case of the bribery.
The briber scandal:
Extremely corrupt minister in charge of the railway ministry in
Bangladesh, brief-less lawyer Suranjit Sen Gupta was finally axed from
the post of the railway minister following the huge bribery scandal,
where his Assistant Personal Secretary [APS] Omar Faruk was caught with
some corrupt senior officials of Bangladesh Railway with large sum of
bribe money, during the late hours of April 9. The APS and the senior
officials were en-route to the minister's residence to deliver the bribe
money packed in a jute sack. Suranjit Sen Gupta, who enjoyed the status
of a "veteran parliamentarian", had finally landed into the status of a
corrupt political jackal in the eyes of the people at home and abroad.
Many said, "At this age of the last tail of his life, greed for money
and wealth had put Suranjit into trash, which had the habit of passing
objectionable and bad-taste comments on his political rivals as well as
his party insiders, including the current Prime Minister, in his own
style of ape-like sarcastic body language. On April 15, 2012, Suranjit
Sen Gupta was summoned at the official residence of the Prime Minister,
where he was asked to give explanations of the incident of April 9, 2012
night, where his staffers were caught with stacks of money en-route to
the his residence. Suranjit tried to defend himself with numerous
stories, similar to those of what he told the media since the scandal
broke, while the Prime Minister did not buy such lies of the railway
minister and asked him to quit the post. Suranjit played all of his
cards in not being axed from the railway ministry, while the Prime
Minister reportedly told him that his [Suranjit] corruption as well as
corruption of his son and inner-circle cadres of him was already within
the radars of various intelligence agencies.
It was later reported in Bangladeshi and international media that
Suranjit's only son Soumen Sengupta turned into a neo-millionaire within
the span of three odd months, since his father became the railway
minister. Soumen Sen Gupta paid TK. 50 million cash as license fees for
obtaining a telecom gait wait license from the Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission [BTRC]. Neither Suranjit nor his
son could give any satisfactory reply as to how Soumen suddenly turned
into a multi-millionaire, months after his father became the railway
minister. Though Suranjit Sen Gupta was forced to resign from the
railway ministry, in an unprecedented manner, he was reinstalled in the
cabinet within 24-hours as minister without portfolio, which many
believe to have been done at the strong lobbying of some influential
politicians of a neighboring nation. Some even say that the corrupt
minister was reloaded in the cabinet to save him from any investigations
of Anti Corruption Commission or intelligence agencies, as under the
existing law of the land, no investigation can be conducted against a
sitting minister without the approval of the President. In this case,
there is no room or space of any doubt that the head of the government
in Bangladesh, by playing the role of savior of a corrupt minister has
surely put itself into the role of an abettor of crime and corruption,
which in no definition can be either applauded or accepted either by
sensible communities in Bangladesh or the world. With the busted
corruption scandal of Minister Suranjit Sen Gupta, stories of similar
high-profile corruptions by many other members of the current cabinet
are becoming public, which definitely opens the scope for anyone to term
the ruling elites in Bangladesh as nefariously corrupt.
Failures unlimited:
List of failures of the ruling party in Bangladesh in addressing key
national issues such as resolving the existing power crisis as well as
ensuring law and order situation etc are not only unlimited but unending
as well. The government has evidently failed to ensure good governance
in the country, while it has wrongly engaged into series of notorious
crimes including state-sponsored terror, enforced disappearance, secret
killings, political intimidations, repression of press, oppression of
religious minorities and gross violation of the constitutional
provisions with drastic ignorance of the democratic values. Such
tendencies are only seen in countries under authoritarian regimes, which
face undeterred criticism and even punishable actions by the
international agencies and communities. The latest case of enforced
disappearance of opposition politician and ex Member of the Parliament, M
Ilias Ali has already generated huge wave of media criticism at home
and abroad. Blood-chilling news and commentaries centering the ongoing
enforced disappearances and secret killings as well as state-sponsored
terror by the current ruling party in Bangladesh are now hitting the
major segments of national and international media, thus placing the
rulers in Bangladesh into the status of violators of civic rights and
committers of crime against humanity. Since M Ilias Ali went missing
more than a week back, there is no trace of his current status, though a
vernacular daily reported quoting a police officer that he was forcibly
"abducted" by a sensitive intelligence agency in the country. The case
of M Ilias Ali is amongst hundreds of such enforced disappearances,
which is reaching very alarming level. Reading between the lines of
statements of responsible figures of the ruling party evidently show
that the opposition leader is surely under the captivity of any of the
agencies, though it is still foggy enough to assess the last episode of
this extremely critical case of enforced disappearance. Many believe the
chance of his returning alive along with his driver is slim enough,
while some even are unsure if his trace will ever be known in near
future. United States, United Kingdom and other governments have already
expressed serious concern over the disappearance of M Ilias Ali, while
Amnesty International and other rights group are pressing protests
condemning such nefarious notoriety of the ruling party in Bangladesh.
Where is M Ilias Ali really:
This is truly a million dollar question in the minds of every citizen
of Bangladesh, who are already traumatized at the density of extreme
terror created by the ruling party especially after the recent case of
disappearance of M Ilias Ali and his driver. Speculative reports,
articles, commentaries and even editorials are filling Bangladesh media
though the government has warned the members of Bangladeshi media to
refrain from making "wild speculations" centering the disappearance of
this popular politician. Currently there are numerous opinions
circulating in Bangladeshi and even a segment of the international
media, which say M Ilias Ali and his driver might have already been
murdered in solitaire confinement and buried secretly in some unknown
place. Others think the 'abductors' might have kept him along with his
driver in any of the well-guarded places, wherefrom he might be
dramatically released with the imaginary story of being abducted by his
political or business rivals or "some unknown crime gang". Some even say
the chance of his returning alive is really slim, as a released Ilias
Ali will certainly start telling his party colleagues and members of the
media about the entire story of his abduction and subsequent
disappearance, which may put additional black spot on the ruling party.
Saudi diplomat murder mystery untraced:
More than one month has already passed since the brutal murder of the
Saudi diplomat Khalaf bin Mohammed Salem-al Ali [45], who was found
dead following gun shoots in his chest in Dhaka's upmarket diplomatic
district of Gulshan. The murder took place at a time, when the
Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have had a strained relationship recently,
though Saudi Arabia is a major donor in Bangladesh. At the same time,
Saudi Arabia currently employs more than two million Bangladeshis in
that country. It may be mentioned here that, the tragic murder of Khalaf
Al Ali took place just on the next day of an officer of the
intelligence wing of India's Border Security Forces [BSF] were arrested
by Bangladeshi border forces with arms. It was immediately learnt that
the captured BSF secret agent confessed to the Bangladeshi interrogators
that a number of his colleagues have earlier entered Bangladesh, most
of whom possess weapons. Though the government did not utter any further
information on the captured BSF secret agent, it is learnt from various
sources that he might be silently handed over to Indian authorities
within a couple of days, while the government is reluctant in
investigating the case of those BSF men, who already entered Bangladeshi
territory. Since independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Khalaf Al Ali is
the first diplomat who has been murdered in the capital city's posh
diplomatic enclave, which was already believed to be the most protected
areas in the country. This murder has not only tarnished the image of
the nation, but has also left wrong signals with the foreign nations,
especially the Arab world. It may be mentioned here that, Saudi Arabia
is considered to be one of the nations in the Arab world, where
terrorism and Jihadism never got any minimum chance to grow. Saudi
authorities are always extremely vigilant in combating any type of
religious extremism and wrong interpretation of Islam. At the same time,
Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of the Muslim nations, which has
always been extremely generous towards the developing and
under-developed Muslim nations in the world. Khalaf Al Ali's murder on
the street took place weeks after the Bangladeshi Prime Minister told in
a public meeting that her government cannot give security and
protection to its citizen at their homes. This murder has surely put the
home minister and her junior minister as well as members of Bangladeshi
police administration at stake. This clearly and very unfortunately
shows the failure of the ministry and the police administration.
Observers feel that the police administration in Bangladesh, which
enjoyed high esteem for its skill and efficiency has been made some how
crippled, as the ruling party has been continuously trying to use them
as mere political cadres.
Valley of death and fear:
Starting from the brutal murder of journo-couple Sagor Sarwar and
Meherun Runi to the murder of the Saudi diplomat Khalaf bin Mohammed
Salem-al Ali to latest episode of enforced disappearance of Bangladesh
Nationalist Party leader M Ilias Ali along with his driver has put the
entire nation into extreme fear and insecurity of life. Some even say
that the Nazi-styled fascism of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League is
gradually pushing Bangladesh towards a valley of death and fear, which
surely is no good news for democracy or democratic institutions.
Hillary Clinton's visit:
The secretary of state of the United States of America, Hillary Rodham
Clinton is scheduled to visit China, India and Bangladesh during the
first week of May, where she has excluded Pakistan from her itinerary
due to understandable reason. Hillary's visit to China, which has
already turned into the major economic partner of United States, has
valid reasons, and such trip will further strengthen the existing
bilateral relations between Washington and Beijing. On the other hand,
the US secretary of states' visit to India is taking place at a crucial
timing when the ruling party and its political elites are facing
numerous charges of high-profile corruption, where even the name of the
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has been indicted. But the
first-ever visit by the United States' secretary of state to Bangladesh
is taking place at the time of extreme political turmoil, where the
ruling party is accused of documented corruption, violation of human
rights and constitutional provisions as well as liable of
state-sponsored terror. Political critics believe Hillary's visit to
Bangladesh may be translated as Washington's fresh vow to the ruling
Bangladesh Awami League, which would even leave negative impact in the
upcoming US Presidential election, where Barack Obama will fight for
reassuming in the White House. Rejecting such forecasts some critics
say, Hillary's visit will not give any legitimacy to the ongoing
wrongdoings of the ruling party in Bangladesh, though they also doubt
the US secretary of state may ultimately call off her trip to Dhaka if
the ruling party will fail proving its any involvement in enforced
disappearance and secret killings in particular. In case the trip is
called-off, the odor of "jackfruit governance" and mischievous politics
of the ruling party may become much prominent both at home and abroad.
